Tite work, Europe. Make Amadinejad right.

Europe starts peddling offensive cartoons of Muhammed under the guise of free speech just as the Austrians convict David Irving of Holocaust denial and sentence him to three years in prison. You couldn't have time this better.

Iranian President Mahmoud Amadinejad in September:

Some European countries insist on saying that Hitler killed millions of innocent Jews in furnaces and they insist on it to the extent that if anyone proves something contrary to that they condemn that person and throw them in jail. Although we don't accept this claim, if we suppose it is true, our question for the Europeans is: is the killing of innocent Jewish people by Hitler the reason for their support to the occupiers of Jerusalem? If the Europeans are honest they should give some of their provinces in Europe - like in Germany, Austria or other countries - to the Zionists and the Zionists can establish their state in Europe.

Amadenejad isn't the first anti-Semite to use Holocaust denial laws as ammo against the arguments for a Jewish state in the Middle East, but the combination of the cartoon controversy and Irving's conviction just might give this lunatic some credence he lacked before. As long as eleven European countries resort to criminalization for offenses against particular Jewish and Christian sensitivities and to claims of free speech for offenses against the Muslim variety, radicals like Amadinejad will continue to gain credibility in the Muslim world--as will their anti-Semitic rhetoric. The result is plainly self-defeating: laws against anti-Semitism in Europe raise the specter of anti-Semitism elsewhere in the world. If Europe truly believes in free speech, then it must eliminate this double standard and afford people like Irving the same protections as it would Danish cartoonists. Otherwise, claims to "free speech" ring hollow and smell of nothing more than anti-Muslim prejudice.